Tuesday, 6 October 2015

Vegetarian fish curry with ivy gourd (Kovaykka)

Last day we got bulk amount of ivy gourds from our kitchen garden. We shared it with our friends and neighbours, even though still we have major share. So I have been forced to prepare ivy gourd dishes repeatedly. Repetition is always boring, isn't it. So I planned to experiment varieties. I tried vegetarian fish curry also. It was awesome, never tasted this before. But I heard of this from my cousin. This dish taste like fish curry without fish. This will surely satisfy both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

Add half cup of water or thin coconut milk and cook until oil separates.

Add coconut milk, pot tamarind pieces and salt and let it boil.

Once it starts boiling, add ivy gourd pieces and cook until oil separates.

Switch off the stove. Taste good with rice, chapati and dosa.

Let us go to the step by step preparation of vegetarian fish curry

Wash ivy gourd thoroughly. Take a sharp knife and cut off the upper end. Keeping the one side intact make two slits from the other side to four equal parts.

Peel off and discard the skin and slice onion longitudinally into small pieces. Slit the green chilly vertically. Keeping one side intact, slit from the other side Use a knife or vegetable peeler to remove the tough skin of ginger and reveal the yellowish flesh and cut into small pieces.

Place a Earthenware (Mann chatti) on the stove. Heat two tablespoons of oil.

Add half tablespoon mustard seeds and let it crackle.

Add 1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds and saute for one or two seconds or until it turns to light brown colour.

Add curry leaves and saute for one or two seconds.

Add sliced onion, green chilly and ginger and saute until the onions became light brown.

Add three teaspoon chilly powder (I also used Kashmiri chili powder for this preparation. I want a moderately spicy curry in good reddish colour.)and quarter teaspoon turmeric powder, saute until its raw smell goes. Add half cup of water (or thin coconut milk ) until the oil separates.

Add one and half cup of coconut milk, pot tamarind pieces and salt. Mix well and let it boil.

Now the curry is ready to be served. Taste good with rice, chapati, dosa etc.

Some tips on Ivy gourd vegetarian fish curry

Saute powdered spices until its raw smell leaves.

Use a small amount of pot tamarind.

You can cook use thick and thin coconut milk in this recipe. In that case, cook ivy gourd pieces in thin coconut milk (1 1/2), when it's done well add half cup of thick milk at the end and immediately switch off the stove.